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16.11.2011

Repetition resolved

Well, just got back from our now regular session. We spent a long time resolving last week’s problem of what to repeat and what not to and I feel managed to work around it by cutting from the police entering the house to the end of the conversation. We don’t want to give too much away and are also blocking ourselves by trying to keep the focus solely on the girl’s perspective of events. Without giving out a spoiler the audience are still unaware of what has happened to the boy which is how we wanted it to pan out.

We did have a discussion about one or two police officers in terms of setting the level of importance of the boy’s disappearance and settled on one uniformed but with background police cars police to indicate that a larger force is involved. So often it is what is not said that gives messages and all these little details go to inform the audience of the overall picture. We had a debate(as yet unresolved) of whether the girl’s mother should offer to replace a bowl of soggy uneaten cereal to indicate a caring family. It is one line that adds to the feeling given. Would you include it? Let us know!

Script writing does allow for much debate and development. I often wonder how the ‘professional’ writers do it. Perhaps I should research It for interest sake.

Darren and I also have our regular non-script debates. Tonight it was about the political scene and pensions and what we want for Christmas. Always good to debate even though neither topic came up with any solid conclusions!

We are now up to the last 6/7 scenes so the initial end is in sight before going back to tidy and smooth over bits. Still on target to finish before Christmas break.

10.11.2011

Repetition

Lindsay and I had a good script writing session last night. The characters are progressing nicely and with each session the script seems to gel more.

From a scripting point of view we are still struggling to keep our main character on screen all the time as this is a departure from our normal style. We easily forget that the film is from her point of view and have had many a discussion as to how to achieve this.

Our dilemma last night was how to overcome repetition. We have a scene at the beginning of the film that explains how the two children become separated. The scene we were writing last night was a meeting with the police. It became obvious to us that to tell the police the story, would mean re-telling what the audience had already seen.

There are many ways round this like cross fading half way through the scene, or just starting the scene later saying goodbye to the police, but all felt a little contrived. I am sure we’ll think of something by the next session.

I’d say we’re two thirds through writing, then a couple of re-writes and we should be done by our Christmas deadline.

All going well so far!

27.10.2011

Scripting Dilemma

It’s an interesting dilemma when writing a script as to whether to include a character or not. Today we went through the process of should we include a dad for the lead girl. Easier in terms of casting and the flow of the script to ignore him but if we did that the audience would then be asking the question, ‘Where is he?’ If we left him out we would somehow have to explain his absence and have to consider whether that would then change the responses and so forth of our girl and story line.

When planning a script we tend to create characters and set up the background and family etc . This helps to explain behaviour and the way the audiences react to and empathise with a character. Obviously an absent father(and why he is absent) will have an impact on the character and as such the storyline. In today’s case we included him and gave him a line to signify his place in the family set up. He had just arrived in from work at 10:00 pm and still had his work shirt and tie on letting the audience know that it was a middle class family with a white collar job and as such a degree of education and affluence. All little details that an audience might not even overtly pick up but will sit comfortably with the plot have to be considered.

Apart from that little diversion we have written another couple of scenes and it is panning out OK. We also set our time line so we know deadlines we are working to. So here it is – for all of you who may want to apply or be asked to apply for a role within the film.

Script: finish by Christmas
Marketing: January
Locations/budget/plan: January
Casting/Auditions: February with Actual audition week of 27th Feb (allows for at least a week back after half term
Rehearsals: March – May

Filming: Half term (June Possible problem with this as bank holiday on Monday and Tuesday!!)

12.10.2011

Scripting scenes

After many hours deliberating the outline, characters and then story we finally started scripting this evening.

We discussed a title change as ‘Trapped’ no longer represents the story, and so far the working title is now ‘Just Friends?’ but we’re still not settled on it yet.

We have also made a decision to stick with the girls (Charlie) story and leave what happens to the boy (Jordan) until the end. This helps to strengthen Charlie’s angst and the audience’s too as they also wont know what happened to Jordan.

We’ve scripted 4ish scenes now, probably another 20 or so to go. One of the hardest scenes is written, which begins the whole story. The other hard one will be at the end.

Anyway I am feeling very positive about it all as is Lindsay and can’t wait to get it finished. We’re going to have to choose our lead actress very carefully as she’ll be in every scene! More on that another time

28.09.2011

Flesh on the bones

Well, just got back from Darren’s after another successful writing evening. We had the bare bones of an outline and are beginning to flesh it out as they say by putting more detail to the story. I’m not sure how much to start giving away as there is a danger if I say too much it may spoil the finished story for those who want to watch it. Something to discuss with Darren I guess. Anyway two of our issues about plausibility I feel we resolved by holding the explanation of why events happened/didn’t happen by tying them up within the final scene. It seems very cryptic but do I include spoilers?

We have a couple of questions about what a 13 year old may do in some situations and my homework is to chat to some students at school and get a response from those of that age. I’ve also got to try(and I stress try!) to contact Facebook about whether we would be allowed to use footage of their pages and some Film/TV companies to see if we can use extracts. I tried Nickelodeon a couple of weeks ago and have had no response so far. We daren’t just use it as they could get funny about copyright. Let’s see how it goes!

Anyway, I am feeling pretty positive about the project, as is Darren. Here’s to the next session which I suspect will flesh out everything and then we will start actually writing the actual words. I am really keen to have as few words as possible and let the visuals do the work. Not sure how Darren is with the extremities I am preaching but I know we will reach the right midway pint as we always do.